An atom table is a system-defined table that stores strings and corresponding identifiers. An application places a string in an atom table and receives a 16-bit integer, called an atom, that can be used to access the string. A string that has been placed in an atom table is called an atom name.
Overviews
About Atom Tables
This section discusses atom tables.
Using Atoms
This topic discusses how to use atoms in applications.
Functions
AddAtom
The AddAtom function adds a character string to the local atom table and returns a unique value (an atom) identifying the string.
DeleteAtom
The DeleteAtom function decrements the reference count of a local string atom. If the atom's reference count is reduced to zero, DeleteAtom removes the string associated with the atom from the local atom table.
FindAtom
The FindAtom function searches the local atom table for the specified character string and retrieves the atom associated with that string.
GetAtomName
The GetAtomName function retrieves a copy of the character string associated with the specified local atom.
GlobalAddAtom
The GlobalAddAtom function adds a character string to the global atom table and returns a unique value (an atom) identifying the string.
GlobalDeleteAtom
The GlobalDeleteAtom function decrements the reference count of a global string atom. If the atom's reference count reaches zero, GlobalDeleteAtom removes the string associated with the atom from the global atom table.
GlobalFindAtom
The GlobalFindAtom function searches the global atom table for the specified character string and retrieves the global atom associated with that string.
GlobalGetAtomName
The GlobalGetAtomName function retrieves a copy of the character string associated with the specified global atom.
InitAtomTable
The InitAtomTable function initializes the local atom table and sets the number of hash buckets to the specified size.
Macros
MAKEINTATOM
The MAKEINTATOM macro converts the specified atom into a string, so it can be passed to functions which accept either atoms or strings.